Information about Allen Interval Algebra and its incorporation into IOF Core

IOF Core supports representing qualitative temporal information based on an algebra of binary relations on intervals developed by Allen [1] to address the problem of reasoning about such information. These reasoning problems are frequently encountered in industrial settings, particularly in areas such as planning and scheduling, factory monitoring systems, and healthcare applications. IOF Core defines object properties with the following labels, each representing the original temporal relations as shown in the following table.

Allen’s relation	IOF Core Object Property	Pictorial Interpretation	IOF Core Inverse Property
before	core:before	XXX YYY	core:after
equal	core:occursSimultaneouslyWith	XXX YYY	(symmetrical)
meets	core:meets	XXXYYY	core:metBy
overlaps	core:temporallyOverlaps	XXX YYY	core:temporallyOverlappedBy
during	core:occursDuring	XXX YYYYYY	core:containsOccurrenceOf
starts	core:temporallyStarts	XXX YYYYYY	core:temporallyStartedBy
finishes	core:temporallyFinishes	XXX YYYYYY	core:temporallyFinishedBy

Typically, Allen’s temporal relations hold only between time intervals, but IOF Core allows for both bfo:temporal interval and bfo:process (considering every process occupies a temporal interval. Therefore, the relation among two intervals can also be extended to the two processes occupying those intervals).

References

[1] Allen, J.F., 1984. Towards a general theory of action and time. Artificial intelligence, 23(2), pp.123-154.